Caoimhín's Content

Astronomical and Educational content, in English and Irish

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  • Loingseoireacht le Réaltaí | Navigation by the Stars

    Today we will be talking about navigation and stargazing, using the stars to find out where you are and what direction you are facing. We’re looking at the sky for the end of April this year, and the Moon will be full on the first day of May, Lá Fhéile Bealtaine. For that reason the…

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  • Comet 141P-D/Machholz and 26P/Grig-Skjellerup: Their Orbits and Meteor Showers

    Today we are finally going to take a look at Comet 141P/Machholz. I mentioned this comet a few pieces ago when we were taking a look at the conjunction of planets that is visible early in the morning if you are closer to the equator. This comet and the planets will be above the horizon…

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  • The April Lyrids and π-Puppids: Tricky Meteor Showers

    Today we are going to take another look at the Lyrids meteor shower. I did mention it in the overview of April, but I do want to revisit it in a little bit more detail and also look at its parent body, comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher). The April Lyrids is the main upcoming meteor shower.…

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  • Earthshine: How to See it This Month!

    Today we are going to quickly review what some of the planets are doing in April, now that we’re getting a little bit closer to their conjunctions, and we’re also going to discuss a phenomenon known as Earthshine. We’ll begin with the Sun setting into the west for the 18th. We’re just past the New…

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  • Stephan’s Quintet, the Carina Nebula, JWST and Lagrangian Points!

    Today we are going to take a look at a variety of deep sky objects, starting with a group of galaxies. Stellarium, as I mentioned in the previous piece, it did recently have an update and that update included new listings for things and hopefully it may contain some new images as well. We’re looking…

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  • April Constellations and Various Sky Cultures in Stellarium

    Today we are going to be taking a look at the constellations that we’re going to see over the course of the month of April. Taking a look at the sky for mid-April and looking at the daytime sky, the Sun is almost directly in the south at just about 1:30, because we are at…

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  • Where is Artemis II? The Darkside of the Moon and Ephemeris Data from JPL!

    Today we are going to take a quick look yet again at the Moon and talk a little bit more about the Artemis II mission to the Moon, the first crewed mission to the Moon in decades. To take a look at the Moon, we’re going to have to wait for it to come up.…

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  • The April Full Moon: Pink Moon, Artemis II and Easter

    Today we are going to be looking at the Moon. We are going to start by taking a look at sunset yesterday, so we’re taking a look at the 1st of April or April Fool’s Day, which was the date of the Full Moon this month. It has just happened, last night the Moon was…

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  • Jupiter’s Moons, Lightspeed and a 2092 Conjunction!

    Today, we are going to look ahead to an event that is coming up in the future. This time we are only looking a few decades ahead, to 2092. For those of you who are regular readers of these posts, you know that we take a look into the future for future events occasionally, although…

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  • April Comets: Where and When to see C/2026 A1 MAPS and C/2025 R3 PANSTARRS

    Today, as promised, we are going to take a look at a couple of comets. We’re beginning on the 3rd of April, which is just a little before Comet 2026 A1 MAPS reaches perihelion. MAPS is the name of the observation program, really the initials of the astronomers involved, that discovered this comet. This comet…

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